5/2/87 AWA World Heavyweight Title: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig 23:44
ML: As with the early New Japan Tokyo Dome shows, I don't think the AWA put their best foot forward in their baseball stadium shows or PPVs because they tended to do a bunch of short matches that were designed to appeal to more of a casual audience. If the WWF could do anything, it was appeal to the MTV generation. AWA was built more on substance than on this sort of flash. The more they were themselves and an alternative, the better they were. This felt like a true AWA match, serious, technical, building up. This isn't WOS level, but certainly a much higher level of technical wrestling than you'd expect to see in America during this period, as the workers legitimately believed in their old school grappling style. They were committed to the holds and counterholds, as opposed to the Japanese junior style where the locks are really there to showcase the gymnastic counters. The crowd was really awful though, and didn't appreciate the chain wrestling that was the best stuff they had to offer. Nonetheless, the wrestlers intensity was good, and Bockwinkel wasn't going to be deterred by a few clowns in WWF hats. Bockwinkel still moved like a young man here, and was on top of his game despite being 52 years old. Meanwhile, Henning had the fire and his athleticism served him well here, showing good speed and flexibility in the technical style and taking some nice bumps when they'd briefly divert from it. This was smooth and fluid wrestling from both parties. The action was neither too fast nor too slow, they kind of let the hold register and then found a way to move out of it. There was a lot of arm work from Bockwinkel and knee work from Hennig. They worked more and more striking into the second half, but this was more fine than exactly good. This was Bockwinkel's 4th and final title run, holding the belt he won from Stan Hansen for almost 11 months. He was 4 months away from retiring to be a WWF road agent and sporadic announcer, but no one knew that at the time, and had AWA business picked up, he probably would have continued for another year or two. With their long term face champion Rick Martel having jumped to the WWE last year, 27-year-old Hennig was clearly the future of the company. His father Larry wasn't as famous as Verne Gagne, but his son was bigger, stronger, better looking, and more athletic than Verne's son Greg. Curt was in the role he needed to be in, the young face who was about to finally surpass the legend in a classic scientific match where he showed good energy and enthusiasm, answering everything the veteran could throw at him in a good solid long contest between babyfaces. With this being the AWA's lone PPV of 1987, Bockwinkel should have lost clean and passed the torch. Instead, heel Larry Zbyszko, who watched at ringside because he was to be the next challenger, wound up giving Hennig a roll of coins that Hennig knocked Bockwinkel out with. The ref counted 3, but the title was immediately held up, so the PPV went off the air with the belt in limbo. Bockwinkel defended it in Memphis 2 days later against JE-FF JA-RR-E-TT, which I'm assuming wasn't acknowledged by the AWA, but Hennig was ultimately awarded the belt, which made this even dumber because it just tainted his career defining victory. He turned heel out of this convoluted angle, and had a year run with the strap, often defending against Bockwinkel, Greg Gagne, Wahoo McDaniel, & Jerry Lawler before jumping to WWF. The match started really strong, and while it evolved, it kind of just held at a good solid level before the lousy finish left a bad taste. While this isn't their best match, you can't go wrong with this pairing. Sadly, this was the only world title Hennig ever won. I guess titles aren't a prerequisite of Perfection? ***1/4

5/4/25 NJPW IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Hirooki Goto vs. Callum Newman 24:01
ML: 22-year-old Newman is an actual good prospect in New Japan, not another of these late 20's or even early 30s guys that are actually in their prime years already, such as they are, but people still think of as being young lions because they still aren't very good and haven't really accomplished anything either. Newman has been wrestling part time since he was 15, and more or less full-time the past 4 years. He's obviously not the most original wrestler since he was trained by Will Ospreay to do Will Ospreay things, but he's really started to get it in the past year or two, and made considerable strides in his Ospreaydom. He's not the most consistent or well rounded wrestler, but he has great speed and athleticism, pushes the pace and executes impressively. This was by far the biggest match of Newman's career. Newman has zero singles title experience in New Japan, which made him as unlikely a Dontaku challenger as you'll find given he's obviously not some big name loan or a newly signed WWE/AEW reject. His claims to fame are winning 2 matches in the 2024 G1 Climax and participating in the last two New Japan Cups, where he lost first round. This was only his second singles match of 2025, and outside of a RevPro win over Connor Mills, he didn't win any singles matches in 2024 that weren't part of the G1 Climax Qualifying Tournament or the league itself. Being a 2 time champion of the London Lucha League doesn't open these kind of doors, but the bookers fault that Newman isn't a credible challenger. Callum was only here because Gedo was seemingly asleep at the wheel, giving a tag title run to Jeff Cobb & Newman on 4/5 despite Cobb working without a contract since January while negotiating with multiple companies that would likely pay him better. Newman & Cobb wound up holding the tag titles for 9 whole days before Cobb jumped to the WWE, leaving New Japan without a main event challenger here, or a tag title defense on either Dontaku show because they then gave Newman the titles with not Great-O-Khan, and had him sub for Cobb here. Newman obviously isn't ready for this match push wise, but skill wise he proved was there. This wasn't going to be a particularly dramatic title match because Newman was only going to push Goto so far, but I think Newman handled the situation as well as anyone could have envisioned. Goto obviously carried the match, but Newman was the better worker here, and looked very noticably better in any portion that involved back and forth. Newman is obviously no Zack Sabre Jr., but he's actually a better opponent for Goto because he also wants to be standing and moving around on his feet. This was an interesting title defense for Goto because a lot of his appeal in this run is operating as the perpetual underdog, while here he would probably be a -2500 favorite. Goto was the one who was controlling rather than making the hot comebacks, but the match still worked with Newman being the one fighting from underneath, building credibility throughout the match. Beyond the seemingly lopsided nature of the matchup, their strengths are being energetic, so this really wasn't a match that you wanted to be going long. Gedo has finally toned the match lengths down a bit, but this was a match that should have been 17 minutes. When your title challenger is nicknamed "Prince of Pace", and grew up idolizing "Speed Star" Masato Yoshino, you don't want to be stretching him to 25 minutes, especially when his only New Japan singles match over even 15 minutes was a 16:44 loss to Shota Umino. This match didn't drag like the majority of IWGP Heavyweight Title matches of the past 13 years, but it also didn't jump out at you the way I think it could have. This was really up and down in terms of pace, but with Newman there was a higher gear that Goto's other title defenses didn't have. This was a good confident performance by Goto, who obviously is always professional, but felt like the champion now. Goto was already going for his fifth defense here, the record for this new version of the top title. It's pretty crazy that he set the defense record on day 82 of his title reign. The match played out about as you'd expect, veteran Goto had to be smart and lead, but explosive upstart Newman would impress when given the opportunity because he has the physical attributes on his side given that he's half Goto's age, and clearly also a better athlete than Goto was when he was young. Goto worked on Newman's injured neck some, but this was more of a time eater between the bursts of action. The match may have had the dumbest strike exchange I've ever seen. Newman was "too injured" to throw a decent strike, and would get flattened by every one of Goto's, so rather than simply switch things up, he just accepted his uselessness in striking and started getting up and standing in front of Goto with his hands behind his back to prove he could at least keep surviving Goto's best shot. The announcers had been going on and on about how the only thing he cared about in life was winning this title, and here Newman was just begging to lose by knockout. This wannabe tough guy crap in puro is just so unbelievably dumb, but this set a new standard entirely. All this accomplished was making Goto look terrible because he consistently failed at New Japan's version of Power Slap. Suddenly, Newman managed to stay on his feet for not just 1, but 5 wannabe elbows in a row, at which point he apparently proved his manhood and finally fired back. Newman somewhat evened things out with an Oscutter 2.0 on the apron for a near count out. The final minutes were a big explosion of finishers executed and countered. It just wreaked of desperation having both use the rainmaker, especially with the announcers talking about how Newman was the last guy to take it, as if Okada hadn't spent the last year looking like a 60 year old man walking through matches and beating the poor sap who was stuck posing him in AEW. While this wasn't as fast-paced as a typical Newman match given the length, it wasn't mostly padding and stalling like an Okada and Naito era New Japan main event. I could actually sit through this whole thing without having to hold my eyes open. Goto stayed in his element and stuck to what he does well. He looked good here, executing with a lot more speed and crispness than in his title win over ZSJ. Newman earned enough respect that the fans still got into the match quite a bit. This was his breakout performance, and Goto felt like a champion and a guy who was filling the role of carrying the company. ***1/4

8/27/25 AEW: Falls Count Anywhere: Darby Allin vs. Claudio Castagnoli 13:41
ML: Their 12/21/24 match was my favorite of their matches, and the best AEW TV match of 2024, while this was my least favorite of their matches. They did a match for the ECW Arena crowd of 1996, an athletic match with a bunch of plunder that's all spots and no story. As with the Forbidden Door main event, while good, this match almost entirely plays into Darby's worst stunt man instincts. It's fine if he manages to survive unscathed, but the odds of that decrease the more you lean into him falling or getting thrown several feet through tables. Two of the things that made their previous matches so good were Claudio's base work and Darby's nonstop explosive style, but this was a lot more deliberate with just Darby largely just being a pinball. They started fighting in the back with Darby hitting a dive off a structure and Claudio slamming him through a TV. They made their way to the ring after this, with Darby doing a coffin drop off a pole. Claudio did the big press slam from the ring over the guardrail onto a table. Darby took an avalanche gutwrench suplex onto a pile of chairs and a powerbomb through a table leaning against the turnbuckle. Those were the most notable spots, more or less, but the rest was essentially all big spots as well. This was slower and a lot less natural because they weren't playing off each other so much as just trying to work all the gimmicks in. The action felt more dangerous because of all the objects, most of the ring was covered with tables or chairs by the end, but it was a lot more linear than usual. They set up a gimmick and either it worked or backfired, wash, rinse, repeat. There were definitely a lot of highlights, and people more amused by the hardcore style are liable to enjoy this considerably more than I did. For me, the main advantage was there were spots you don't normally see and variations of moves due to the weapons and architecture. There wasn't really anything going on beyond the moves though, which were clunkier because of the objects, and the only real question was whether Darby would survive long enough to get his revenge. Darby got the pin after 2 coffin drops, then was jumped by Gabe Kidd then Jon Moxley. ***

5/3/25 NJPW World Television Title: El Phantasmo vs. Konosuke Takeshita 15:00
ML: A hard fought, high flying, big impact match. It was fairly urgent, but the outcome was kind of telegraphed between the announcers talking about the time limit from the 5 minute mark and having a rematch for Takeshita's NEVER Title with a longer time limit a week later. These two have good chemistry though, so the more matches they do the better. They were mostly just throwing bombs. It started and ended hot, but meandered a bit in the middle. Takeshita was sprinting at the outset because it was a short time limit, hitting a big elbow and a tope con giro before the bell. That probably favors Phantasmo, but more importantly, it plays into what Phantasmo does best. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Takeshita to start slowing it down and relying on his size and power advantages. Rocky Romero getting involved, especially so early, and when his man was off to a good start made no sense. Phantasmo attacked him, and hit a dive over the guardrail onto both. They were checking off boxes, but this was largely entertaining. They started trying to finish with every move in the last three or four minutes. Obviously this could have gone a couple more minutes, but this is pretty much the proper length. These guys aren't doing anything deep, so there's no need for them to be going 25 or 30 minutes. Most of what they did was cool but didn't really rise above that, especially within a construct that already felt like neither was winning tonight. This was pretty comparable in quality to their 5/9/25 match. I'd say Takeshita was better here, and Phantasmo was better there. Overall, I don't have a big preference. ***1/4

2/1/22 STARDOM High Speed Title: Starlight Kid vs. Natsupoi 30:00
ML: Natsupoi was given a rematch in her first match back after taking a month off to do stage shows. They tried to make this a big deal by having it be the first High Speed Title main event at Korakuen Hall. Unfortunately, this created a booking dilemna where Rossy Ogawa didn't want Natsupoi to return with a loss, especially since she was set to challenge Saya Kamitani for the Wonder title in 3 weeks, but they also didn't want to take the belt off SLK yet either. Doing a 30 minute draw wouldn't be controversial with a normal title, but the High Speed Title is a unique belt built around sprints full of complex and evolved sequences, and it's not reasonable to expect anyone to go pedal to the medal for 30 minutes, which is one of the reasons it's been a midcard title with matches normally on the shorter end. This long match went against what the belt is "meant to be", and therefore how the wrestlers in this division are trained to wrestle, though the division isn't exclusive like the old New Japan junior heavyweight division was, mostly these women are doing tags with whomever. A lot of how you view this match depends upon whether you have particular expectations for this title, or just want to see a good match. I'm kind of in between. I prefer the purity and uniqueness of the belt, it's the best answer to the soperific slog that has ruined 21st century puro, but at the same time, they already fought three times last year, and any feud needs to keep changing and evolving somewhat in order to stay interesting and keep the performers growing. This feels like a clear evolution from their last match, which was already more of a junior style match than a high speed match, but it's not the evolution I would choose. This is clearly a high quality match, but it doesn't feature as much of what I like from this pairing as some of their others, despite them being out there twice as long. The last minute flopping because they were suddenly too tired to get the pin they needed to get back to the locker room was not a welcome addition. It would be totally unfair to characterize this as a match that tried to follow the overdramatic stretched out epic formula though despite STARDOM's attempt to justify their place on the card in a Gedo world by extending the length considerably. It wasn't the tightest or most explosive match they could have done by any means, but they certainly had enough stamina and desire to go relatively hard for half an hour without screwing around or generally doing things to avoid working any harder than they absolutely had to. In terms of the evolution of their program, and keeping the balance of what the title is supposed to be about, a 20 minute draw, slightly expanding upon their 16:59 title change on 8/29/21 would have been the best balancing act at this point. I found it odd that there was no real limb work this time to help carry them to the 30-minute mark after Starlight had made a clear shift to submissions in their previous encounter. That's not necessarily something I care to see repeated, but it was essentially replaced by excessive Oedo Tai interference, which wasn't expressly ruining the match, but slowed it down more than I would have liked and always felt corny, especially from Kaori Yoneyama. I also found it bizarre that Natsupoi actually looked considerably stronger here despite being rusty and getting ganged up on a lot more. She didn't really feel like the underdog this time, but it also didn't feel like she was ever ready to win. It definitely felt a lot less dramatic, even though they made stabs at over drama. Despite all the extra time, this match didn't really tell a story. I think in terms of the action, this was a very good match, but the dynamics involved in suddenly extending this program to a duration roughly twice as long as it had gone in the past just made it come off awkwardly. I thought the match started quite well. There were a lot of evolved sequences, even if they were a little slower and thus more contrived looking than their best work. This match may be their most sequence-oriented so far though just because they were out there so long. Much more effort seems to have gone into the match because they had so much time to fill. It was quite impressive at times, but was also prone to meandering in between the choreography because they aren't used to being this exposed. Overall, I was very happy with the amount of sequences here, and that they were able to amp up the speed and intensity in the second half after sometimes seeming a bit too cooperative in the initial stages. This wasn't my favorite of their matches so far, but they showed they could handle the added responsibility. Any booker would feel comfortable putting them in the main event based on how they wrestled here. I liked that they thwarted expectations with this match, I'd like to see more of that in wrestling. I think by the time it really got going though, it was already outside their usual parameters to the point the draw was obvious though. They weren't lying around in the New Japan sense, but it felt like after a certain point, they weren't really doing sequences anymore because they were trying to put over the toll of the match. Thankfully, selling the accumulation of damage isn't what people want to see from a high speed match, though I still don't get why they find wrestlers laying around playing dead to be anything but completely unrealistic and boring in the rest of the matches. From the perspective of just any old match, there was way more activity, there's just not the hyperactivity you'd associate with a typical High Speed Title match. That kind of was what it was given the time elongate forced it out of character for the division, the issue was there wasn't really anything compelling done in its place. These two have excellent chemistry, and playing some against match type isn't invariably a bad thing, especially since these two fight regularly, so this differentiated the ones they had in 2021, but they just didn't need 30 minutes to do what they did, which was random spots and sequences plus some unit bs. There was too much time on the outside not really advancing the match with the faction crap that nobody really cares about. The sequences were sometimes of a higher caliber even than in the past, but the urgency and explosiveness was a bit lacking, even though they weren't stalling by any normal standard other than the typical all out 10 minute sprint the belt has often been defined by. For me, the stretch run wasn't as good because they were overselling when they would normally be going. Obviously they would normally be going in a match that was much shorter, but this felt less individual and more like they did some nonsense because that's what you are supposed to do in a lengthy match. They can certainly do better, but this wasn't their worst match, or far off their best, and even though I had issues with the way they filled half an hour, I'm guessing this will still prove more satisfying than their next match that's the other end of the spectrum entirely, condensed to under 6 minutes. ***1/4

8/24/25 AEW/NJPW Lights Out Steel Cage Match: Darby Allin & Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley & Gabe Kidd & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 32:25
ML: This match was all over the place. Chaotic fun, though sometimes too silly, and never done in any sort of a believable manner. It's the definition of a collection of random high spots. It was spectacular enough to be entertaining as long as you don't mind turning your brain off. There was a lot more wrestling content than the typical AEW PPV anarchy chaos match though, and a lot less aimless brawling. The set pieces were mostly fun despite there being no setup or connective tissue. This was more towards the typical Young Bucks tornado style no rules match at the outset, and they were among the standout performers, though this match was largely good because 8 of the 10 wrestlers are strong workers, and they all wanted to stand out. Unfortunately, they increasingly turned it into a stunt man match as it progressed. Darby made his return here, and was a big highlight, as usual, though this didn't really feature anything beyond his willingness to risk death, so I'd rather keep him out of this sort of match. Claudio press slammed Darby over the top rope into the cage. Later, Darby & Kidd took a bump off the top of the cage through a table on top of a table, which was the end of both. Yuta had taken a bump off the cage onto the Japanese announcers table a bit earlier. Ospreay wrestled his last match before a lengthy surgical absence as he usually would despite his ailments, but that's not really surprising given he's been working injured all year. Ospreay did a moonsault attack off the top of the cage into a pile of catchers on the floor. Mox the Fork made an appearance, destroying Darby's ear when he was taped to a chair. There wasn't too much of Moxley's three braincell opera though thankfully, and because Tanahashi would fit in better with the Disabled American Veterans than with the ones who are still able to work, Moxley actually managed to not be the worst worker in the match. The Bucks tried to whip Tanahashi into a barbed wire board, but he only budged about 5 steps even with the extra propulsion. It feels like his knees would need to be oiled every few minutes just so he could manage to hobble the ropes once. At least Ibushi was looking like a reasonable performer again. The Golden Lovers showed some good double teaming, and their chemistry with the Bucks is still there. This still had the usual problem that they are just cycling the performers in and out, and there were usually 6 or 8 guys just chilling on the outside waiting their turn, which again shows poor attention to detail because this wasn't a tag match, everyone was supposed to be going at it the whole time, they just didn't even bother pretending to be doing anything most of the time they weren't in focus. The finish should have been the combo of Ospreay's hidden blade off the top with Omega's one-winged angel to Nick, but instead it took 30 seconds for crippled Tanahashi to make it up to the top rope and manage to jump off for what purports to still be a frog splash. ***

8/24/25 AEW/NJPW IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Nigel McGuinness 17:01
ML: A dream match between the best British wrestler of today vs. arguably the best of 2 decades ago. It shows just how atrocious Tony Khan's booking is, and how far New Japan has fallen that their top title was being defended in 2025 against the wrestler who hasn't won a singles match since 2011. There was no suspense whatsoever because McGuinness obviously isn't going to be IWGP Heavyweight Champion, but we just need to be glad this match between NJPW's top wrestler and a retired top ROH star of the late 00's somehow happened. It's one Sabre has wanted for a long time, against someone he surely looked up to when he was breaking into the business. It was great for the London crowd that at least one real British wrestling match took place on this PPV. These fans understand this style better, and were into it, although not as much as I hoped. I thought the workers would step the aggression up a lot more at some point, especially since both are heels, and also this was worked like a match that was going a lot longer than it actually did, not really picking up for an obvious finishing segment. Bryan Danielson did a better job than usual on commentary here, getting over this unusual for AEW fans style match between two of his greatest rivals. Daniel Garcia had no business being at ringside for this match between legitimate technical wrestling greats, and his personality was cringy as always. It's always great you see ZSJ actually in there with a technical wrestler who understands how to move with him. There was definitely a lot of twisting and turning, spinning in and out of moves, but some of it was more impressive and explosive than others because they don't have the chemistry yet, and/or Nigel isn't as quick and smooth as he used to be. Nigel was good, but short of his own high standard. I'm not sure how hard he's willing or able to push himself at the moment, but I've liked his singles matches since he returned, and this was still the best of them, even if more due to the opponent. The bout was consistently entertaining, but lacked a bit of urgency, and the execution, while always solid, was up and down in terms of the speed and explosion of what they were doing. This might be a bit nitpicky, but it feels like Nigel still has the capability, but he lacks either the confidence or stamina right now to work at the very top level that Sabre obviously represents. When it was impressive, it was quite impressive, and not many 49-year-olds are doing anything impressive despite too many of them still being active. Nonetheless, some of this was surprisingly slow and mechanical. Nigel kept up, and was generally better than the other guys ZSJ has been defending this title against, but this was obviously better than a legends match and nowhere near a big match with both in their prime. The story here was that Nigel was better on their feet, but Sabre had the advantage on the mat. They weren't stalling, but this just had the feel of a match that was going more in the 25 minute range. ZSJ combined a toe hold with an arm bar, which I'm not sure I've seen before. ZSJ was busted open hard way during the uppercut exchange. There was a nice flash pin where Zack tried a roll up, but Nigel spun with it and sat on top of Sabre. This led into the finish where Nigel tried to stack Sabre, but Sabre tucked Nigel's head under and pinned him as if finishing a sunset flip, except leaning to his side and holding his butt off the canvas to put more weight on Nigel's shoulders. This was totally out of the blue if you aren't used to Sabre's matches almost always ending with these flash pins. ***1/4

8/20/25 AEW: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong 15:47
ML: These are by far the two most energetic tag teams in the promotion. O'Reilly has been the best AEW wrestler this year even though he's really meant to be a singles wrestler, and has basically no opponents that can add anything to his MMA leaning style. The Bucks are back to 2023 and before level, with this being their best match of the past 20 months. Though these guys haven't worked together a lot in AEW, the Bucks faced Strong many times in PWG and O'Reilly a lot more because there was a feud in ROH & NJPW between Bucks and reDRagon. Today's match started much different than the usual Bucks match because O'Reilly forced Matt to do technical wrestling, and this was actually really good, if one-sided. O'Reilly was doing everything in combination throughout the match, with great speed and precision. The match looked a lot more like a typical good Bucks match when Strong was in, as he was pushing the pace as always, leading to a lot of rapid fire back and forth. Once it got going, which didn't take long with these guys, it was perpetual motion, with the elegance of the Bucks being a nice counterpoint to the brutality of Paragon, while at the same time their styles blended really well. This obviously lacked the psychology and build of Paragon vs. FTR, but the action was a lot better. There was a dangerous spot where Nick overshot a corkscrew dive, with his knees landing on the side of Strong's neck. The action was too fast to call, with a lot of great counters and double teams from both sides, though the Bucks clearly work better as a team, with Kyle often just cleaning house on his own. This seemed to be heading for a tremendous climax, but then Don Callis came out when Kyle had the ankle lock on, distracting Rick Knox, who doesn't believe in rules anyway, so Kazuchika Okada could ruin yet another match. Swerve made the save way too late, after Kyle was pinned following the TK driver, and of course was left laying after a lame knee clip and another rainmaker by the lazy robot because apparently that's just what happens to Swerve. Given Callis isn't the official manager of any of the 10 men in the main event at Forbidden Door, and Swerve has no involvement with Paragon, this angle felt that much more unnecessary than usual. ***1/2

8/20/88 AWA: Manny Fernandez vs. Wahoo McDaniel 12:31
ML: These rivals wrestled 50 singles matches between 1984-1993 that made the cagematch database. This one was by far the best of the handful I could find footage of. All of their matches are grudge matches in the stiff and brutal sense of wanting to beat each other up, it's mean man wrestling just laying into one another, but this one was far more motivated and more intense. It's simplistic strike oriented stuff, but when they did something, it really got your attention and felt more believable than the same thing done by less sadistic workers, which was just about everyone else. There's an energy and electricity to Wahoo's chops in particular that's a lot more supercharged than in their other matches where he's more subdued. They build anticipation pretty well even when they weren't doing anything notable, and there was enough of a holy shit factor to how hard they were hitting when they found the opportunity that you were happy to wait for it. Even the dead time kind of worked because it felt like there was actual risk to their engagements. The audience was more accepting of them building up to the next big blast since they "believed" in what they were doing. Wahoo was 50 at this point, but his style was about punishment rather than athleticism, and boy could he still bring it. His chop was electric, thrown with seriously ill intent, not the corny parody the blow became because of Ric Flair and the legions of dumb "wooing" marks for themselves. Wahoo was sort of the Genichiro Tenryu grumpy old man who loved beating younger guys up in the final era of the AWA, and so far that is the most enjoyable stuff I've seen from him, particularly his program against Curt Hennig, which were some of the best AWA matches that ESPN broadcast. Fernandez was a wrestler who usually impressed me in my youth, being athletic enough for a bigger guy that he could provide a few highlights, while largely wrestling a stiffer striking style. One of the reasons these two worked well together is that Fernandez, despite being the heel, would do the moving and provide a variety of the attacks, setting up Wahoo to fire back with his big chop. Manny wasn't going to make a match on his own, but he wasn't dull, and could usually at least do enough to have a more interesting match than the majority of the card. Fernandez was effective in drawing Wahoo's ire with shady little shortcuts, and of course Wahoo was an opponent that he didn't have to hold anything back with when it came to his striking. It was a good stylistic matchup, two hard nosed, tough brawlers who mostly just pounded each other and made you believe they disliked one another. There weren't many wrestlers doing this stiffness oriented style outside of Japan at this point, which helped the matchup maintain some freshness despite how many times they ran it back. The action was limited in scope, but it felt like there were stakes, and the striking was done so well it was largely enough that you didn't need unrelated high spots. These two just loved to hurt each other, and there was a certain realism to it because they were laying into one another. Fernandez was the aggressor, but he had to attack in a more calculated manner where Wahoo couldn't just level him with another chop. Fernandez did some simple wrist work, but they made it seem brutal, with Wahoo doing some excellent selling, yelling, "An, my wrist!" This was a fued where most of their matches were bloody, and you believed it even when they started bleeding from nothing in particular, by which I mean their usual tough shots. The only real downside is that there was predictably no finish because it was two names having a TV match that ultimately built up to their AWA SuperClash III PPV match on 12/13/88, which was unfortunately contested under Wahoo's signature gimmick, the Indian strap match, and thus the least of their matches I've seen due to too much of the usual whipping and dragging. This match always felt on the verge of getting out of control, so it wasn't the worst non finish in the sense that you could believe they both had enough of each other and eventually became more interested in hurting one another than scoring a pinfall. ***1/2

4/5/24 REVOLVER/HOG: Masha Slamovich vs. Mike Bailey 12:39
ML: Fast paced and surprisingly intense contest that didn't have the usual inconsequential intergender feel, with the man just kind of humoring the woman by playing around with her before he wins. It was more serious than what Bailey would go on to do in AEW, with Bailey even jumping Masha at the outset with a missile kick. What Slamovich brings to any match is an aggression and urgency. She's like an old school AJW worker in the best ways, with a more modern MMA influenced offense. She was fighting from underneath, but Bailey was more aggressive here, taking it to her for the most part. Bailey played a subtle heel without compromising his own performance to help garner more support for underdog Slamovich. This is their 5th singles match together, and Bailey has yet to score a victory, so he couldn't afford to go easy. These two have excellent chemistry, and both were able to shine here. This was a bit condensed because both had busy Mania weekends, but they adjusted well by doing a shorter match arc, still getting all their offense in. Bailey was fairly dominant, and while he definitely could have been more urgent, he was also kind of setting up Slamovich to impress with her pedal to the metal comeback, at which point he started upping his own level. These particular performers always have a lot of energy and stamina, but one other reason Masha's sprint comebacks work so well for her is her submissions give them a temporary break without just coming off as padding. Though Bailey was trying to fire up the crowd with his flying a little less than normal, this was a good mix where Slamovich focused on bringing energy and speed to her offense, while Bailey brought more athleticism and spectacle. One of the best spots saw Bailey try the avalanche Frankensteiner, but Slamovich slipped out and hit an avalanche German suplex, with Bailey taking the bump as a backflip. The action escalated really well from there, and while Slamovich seemed to only have a chance to pull off a lucky or opportunistic victory, you didn't totally count her out of either a flash pin or submission, which she'd been opportunistic with throughout. Slamovich was answering Bailey's kicks, and could get a near finish off of them. Bailey tried to escape a rear naked choke by exiting with Masha on his back, but Slamovich let it go for a nasty piledriver on the apron then pinned him in the ring. It was surprising that she won so decisively, given the way the Ospreay's of the world don't respect these kind of moves that are supposed to be a more dangerous version, but ultimately can't actually do much because they aren't their regular finisher they have to win with. My only real gripe with the match had nothing to do with the performers, but rather the presentation was pretty awful because they kept jarringly switching back and forth to the "TUSSLE CAM", a black and white amateur home video look with the camera display on so you could see their battery was full and they were recording. I'm all for shifting palettes and tones in the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, evoking different emotional states, but if there's symbolism in wrestling it should be coming from the wrestlers and be conveyed to the live audience, not be a random choice of someone whose job is to present the match rather than interpret it. ***1/4

8/31/24 GLORY: Soufian El Hammouchi vs. Arman Hambaryan R3 2:38
ML: Hambaryan has an entertaining pressure style where he keeps coming forward without ever exiting. He was getting inside so well early that his spinning backfists were turning into illegal spinning elbows. Hambaryan's best work was using at the left straight to set up the right step knee against the ropes. El Hammouchi adjusted rather than wearing down. He's the longer fighter, and would prefer to have space to throw jabs, front kicks, and high kicks. That wasn't going to happen here without a concerted effort, so he had to rely on his footwork. As the fight progressed, El Hammouchi was doing a better and better job of circling off a little then kicking. Hambaryan was chasing more and more, and paying for it. It was impressive that El Hammouchi had more activity and accuracy because he was the one throwing single shots from distance most of the time. El Hammouchi was getting backed up most of the first round, but he landed two good right straights with his back in the corner just before the round ended, dazing Hambaryan with the last. Hambaryan started wobbling backwards, and turned his back as El Hammouchi was trying to follow up, prompting the ref to give Hambaryan a standing 8 count, turning a 10-9 round for Hambaryan into a 10-8 round for El Hammouchi with one second left. El Hammouchi tried to do a better job of not giving up so much ground in the second, throwing the front kick when Hambaryan stepped forward, and generally trying to circle and kick so he wouldn't get bullied. This was a more back and forth round, depending on whether Hambaryan was able to get his combo started and eat up all the space or El Hammouchi was able to keep circling away. When El Hammouchi was able to get himself into open space, he was also able to score with hooks even while backing. Both fighters had their moments in this round, and it could have gone either way, as exemplified by the scorecards being 3-2 for El Hammouchi. Hambaryan was eating way too many middle kicks in the third round, just trying to walk through them. El Hammouchi ducked and circled off the ropes then dropped Hambaryan with a step knee. Hambaryan was still wobbly after he got up, but he only knows one way to fight, so he was trying to push forward still, albeit slowly and weakly. Hambaryan used his last bit of energy missing a spinning backfist, and from there he was kind of just standing in front of El Hammouchi getting hit until his corner threw the towel in. In the end, El Hammouchi had more options, but Hambaryan showed an a lot of heart and persistence. Good match.

8/16/25 UFC: Loopy Godinez vs Jessica Andrade 3R
ML: Andrade is a hook machine with big power and the cardio to stay on the offensive. She keeps her hands low, chin forward, and has almost no head movement. She hits harder than anyone in the division and still has a good chin, so if her weak defense suckers the opponent into exchanging with her, that makes for an even more action packed fight. Loopy fought disciplined, trying not to take the bait, but this was still a crowd pleaser even though she was responsible because Andrade forces the exchanges. Loopy is normally a strong wrestler, but Andrade was totally locked in on defending the takedown. With Andrade's defense rendering a standup fight, Godinez being a woeful 1 of 14 on takedown attempts, Loopy had to rely on her combinations. She threw crisp combos where she hit Andrade with all 3 shots on occasion, she just couldn't do it consistently because she had to avoid getting hit back at all costs. Given Andrade loaded up on everything, it wasn't difficult to evade or block her punches, but you felt like any mistake by Godinez could be fight altering, whereas Loopy was just landing solid shots that were no real threat to finish. The issue with Andrade is you know exactly what she's going to do, and there's no real deception to it. Her strength is that she can keep doing it at the same pace more or less for 5 rounds, and if she ever does connect, the opponent can be slowed down in a hurry. People liken her to Wanderlei Silva for just wanting to wing power, but Wanderlei was a lot more skilled and unpredictable than Andrade. I'd say she's more of a Diego Sanchez type where she just keeps coming forward winging hooks and giving the illusion of success through pressure and entertainment value while getting hit regularly a lot more often than she's actually really being effective. Sanchez was more interested in wrestling given he was New Mexico state champion, and had much more memorable fights because his opponents were more capable of standing up to him and exploiting all the holes in his game. He also had a lot higher output, which was the big problem for Andrade here in the first two rounds. Godinez is a much better technical boxer, with good combinations and a proper block with head movement. She fought smartly, not getting sucked into a brawl just because she could land. Andrade only landed 31%, but they did damage when she got past the block, though mainly in the 3rd when Loopy slowing allowed Andrade to land 57 of her 90 strikes connected for the fight. Godinez was far more accurate, landing 50%, but the threat of Andrade limited her to throwing 74 less. Godinez may not have had the pop, but she was too consistent. Godinez had the speed advantage, and she's just way more capable of moving in general because Andrade has such a wide stance. Godinez was giving up 2 inches in reach, but was the functionally longer fighter because she largely threw straights, where Andrade through wide hooks. You might think Godinez would be able to duck into a takedown attempt, but Andrade keeps her arm low and throws upwards, so it's not that easy to get under them, and when she did, Andrade was ready. Loopy landed twice as many strikes in each of the 1st 2 rounds, and combined with her 1 takedown in the 2nd, she had the fight won before Andrade got going. The decline in Loopy's conditioning to start the third round was quite stark, and that really gave Andrade the confidence to open up, but the real issue was that Loopy just kind of shelled up and wasn't offering any real resistance to Andrade's pressure. Previously she would make her own pushes back with a combination or takedown attempt, but once she stopped initiating her own offense and became just a counter puncher, there was nothing to keep Andrade out of the pocket, swinging wildly. Andrade cut Godinez over the left eye with a right hook. The third round was a really good one for Andrade, and under PRIDE scoring would have won her the fight, but Loopy was ultimately too efficient in the 1st 2 rounds for it to matter. Godinez won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.

6/29/25 NJPW World Heavyweight Title: Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 28:14
ML: Goto turned 46 years old on June 25th. There's no reason for an aging wrestler who tries to rely on fire and energy to be going nearly half an hour, especially in a match that isn't even the main event (although the heavyweight title should be the main event). Goto's body didn't hold up to the stress, which makes this somewhat difficult to review since there's a lot of uncertainty as to what actually happened. What is certain is that Goto has gained a lot in 4 months of actual push, imagine that, and has more than a normal years worth of title matches in that stretch. I think Zack winning was always the plan, but Goto's arm was just too exposed on that nasty stomp. His body betraying him (much more of a reality than they hoped) helped lessen the blow of his title loss. What I'm wondering is whether Goto was supposed to claw his way back through the G1 to earn a Tokyo Dome rematch because Goto has proven Gedo wrong and actually been their best draw this year, so I'm surprised they didn't stick with him at the moment given they don't have much else going on. I'd obviously much rather have Sabre as champ, he's a better wrestler than even prime Goto, and that was a long time ago. On paper, Goto should just have been a short term champion given they were a decade late on his title run, but I think if you read the room, he's currently popular enough that you go with him through the Tokyo Dome and hope Takeshita is available enough in 2026 to warrant a run because none of the home grown supposed talent is anywhere near good enough, though admittedly that never stopped Gedo before. Tonight's match was wrestled at a slow to mid-pace throughout the first half, not lethargic, but clearly taking their time for the most part. In broad strokes, this was pretty similar to their February match, which focused more on Sabre's arm attack than their May match, with the plus being that Goto was performing better and more credibly here. The minus though was that this was the least competitive of the trio, so Goto's offense looking better than in February was largely negated by it being a one-sided contest where Goto largely just got cut right off after a hope spot or two. Goto was very much the underdog here, with Sabre being nastier and more sadistic than usual through targeted disecting of the arm. Goto came back with his lariat, but it wasn't long before Zack regained control with a flying armbar. This was the basic structure. One of the reasons I preferred the May match is that Goto was more confident as the champ rather than the perpetual underdog, but here he was back to being behind from start to finish, rarely getting more than a move or two in because ZSJ had answers for most of his usual tactics and was sniping him. This was fine, but because Goto was the one providing the energy by making the hot comebacks, that meant this match largely lacked any sustained ups, which didn't bode well in a lengthy match that was already lacking any semblance of urgency. ZSJ's cruelty worked, except when he just waited around seeing if Goto could continue, but that presumably couldn't be helped. The match was too methodical though. It's never going to be the best example of Zack's technical wrestling because Goto doesn't really have any answers to ZSJ on the mat, but Goto being unable to get much going on his feet to counteract things was kind of a double whammy. They had finally turned it up around what turned out to be the midway point, teasing the repeat of the double pin from May, and from here things became more interesting, as the outcome was in doubt, and they were getting to the point where the match could actually finish. The best part was between 15-20 minutes where it was escalating well before being crushed by what I assume was the actual injury. Sabre was sticking to his arm focus this time, and to me, the culmination should have come on or out of a brutal spot where Sabre stomped the back of Goto's arm when it was elevated off the canvas. I immediately wrote this definitely could have broken the arm it if it was legitimate, and then seeing what happened afterwards, believe Goto's elbow was injured here, sending the match off the rails. This should just have been the finish one way or the other even assuming Goto didn't get hurt, either a ref stop pretending Goto couldn't continue because his arm was broken or ZSJ going right into an armbar for the tap. They seemingly had a lot more planned though, with the doubt over Goto being able to continue killing all the momentum. I would be very critical of the CM Punk type of antidrama where they just spent the next 3 minutes with Zack squatting in the corner and arguing with the ref, allowing Goto endless time to recover rather than finishing him as the ref debated whether or not he should actually do his job and protect the fighter. With a first half that was already very measured, I assume the plan wasn't to also slow the climax to a halt. This was seemingly real life indecision, and they were waiting for Goto to recover enough to continue, stalling as the best improv they could come up with in an unfortunate moment. In any case, there was one offensive move in the next three plus minutes because Goto couldn't continue, eventually tried but immediately failed, and then took more time to get back to making his second attempt at fighting through. Goto wrestled with one arm when they finally restarted again, and Zack presumably continued more or less as planned, except he was going after the good arm so as not to further legitimately injure the bad one that was just hanging there. Sabre took a flip bump on Goto's hope spot, a left arm lariat. Then Zack was down forever as Goto crawled to the ropes and pulled himself up by the left arm, which was good drama, but way overdone given what caused Sabre to be down so long. ZSJ caught a penalty kick and went for the Zack driver, but Goto slipped out into the GTR, only to be too storyline injured to pin in a reasonable amount of time. There was lots and lots of inactivity here, and one wonders what this would have looked like had Goto been healthy. Most of the last 10 minutes was just eye roll stuff to me, totally overdramatic, but even Goto probably didn't know what was wrong with his elbow beyond it being cooked, so you can't really criticize the guy who was gutting it out. ZSJ continued to do everything but attack the arm he'd been working the entire match, with Goto kicking out after two Zack drivers in a row. Zach finally swung into the arm bar on the kickout. Again, it was the wrong arm, but this time that worked even within storyline because it was the only arm that was available from the position they were in. Sabre just continued to knot Goto up from there, and finally when he had all four appendages under control, Red Shoes actually stopped it. The May ZSJ vs. Goto was the best of this year's trilogy because it was the most energetic. This was the worst of three because it was the most drawn out and unbelievable. ZSJ is much better when he's being explosive rather than measured, and providing energy is what Goto normally does, but we didn't get a lot of either here. It's still worth watching, but more because Sabre is so good and it became an interesting curio than that the match fully came together. The elbow injury unfortunately knocked Goto out of the G1 Climax, so whatever plans they had for him going forward have been pushed back or scrapped. We will eventually see if he's still a star post title run, or another Shingo Takagi, who just kicks around the midcard titles and they hope to get an entertaining match out of now and then. ***

4/15/55 NWA Chicago 2/3 Falls NWA United States Heavyweight Title: Verne Gagne vs. Don Leo Jonathan 29:13 (14:12, 7:06, 7:55)
ML: A deceptively simplistic match where the action was believable enough that it didn't need to be elaborate, and being flashier may have been more of a detriment than an aid. Whatever they did seemed to actually matter, rather than just be randomly done for the sake of showing off. It was laid out well, at least in the 1st fall. This obviously wasn't shoot wrestling, but they attempted to gain advantages realistically, and would try hard to capitalize on them rather than stalling and playing to the crowd. There was what could be described as a brand of stalling where they circled around biding their time to make their move, but this worked because there was an intensity to all this because there were actual stakes to whether or not that entry succeeded. If this was one of those matches where the wrestlers were very obviously cooperating and one could just walk up to the other and tie them in a knot with no resistance, none of this would have worked, but since the opponent was actually trying to defend themselves, it felt logical for them to take their time setting up their attack. This wasn't "exciting" in the modern sense, but they created 10 times the anticipation for a simple lock up than anyone today does for even their finisher. This was a less is more kind of match to an extent, but because I was able to take it seriously as an athletic contest, I was always looking forward to what they would do next, whether or not it wound up being anything earth-shattering. The holds required less skill and athleticism to perform than what we see today, but they did a much better job of accomplishing their goals through the progression of holds. Though people think of classic wrestling as sitting in a move, this didn't have any lengthy holds, and nothing felt like they were clinging to it to kill time. This was energetic in a different way than today, not sequence oriented, but staying on the opponent. The basic story was that Verne was more skilled, but Don had more physicality and less honor. They allowed it to unfold in a reasonably logical manner that never became silly or cheesy. These two got the opening 5 minutes out of working lockup variations, Verne avoiding his larger opponent, shaking each other off, etc., with brief trips to the mat. Jonathan claimed to be 6 ft 6 in, but was a surprisingly good mobile athlete for a wrestler of that size, even doing a leapfrog. He was a football player with disproportionately long arms, and would hold them out wide to make it more difficult for his opponent to get around him. Jonathan's size certainly gave him a big advantage in the lock up and leverage game. From here they shifted to brief advantages. Verne escaped a headlock by shooting Jonathan into the ropes, only to get Thesz pressed. Jonathan started taking a bunch of small liberties with the rules, cheating but not so egregiously that he'd get disqualified or make a farce of it, for instance using the ropes to aid his coconut crunch. Gagne had to resort to sneaking in a punch to gain an advantage, but still couldn't maintain it. I thought they would go further with the fight fire with fire stuff, but this was more or less it. Verne was losing the entire first fall, but when he was able to catch Jonathan coming back off the ropes with a bodyslam after shooting him off to break the headlock. He sunk in the sleeper before Jonathan could get back up to take the fall. Jonathan won the 2nd fall with a bow and arrow. The third fall finish was a bit odd as there was a double knockout for no particular reason after Gagne's backdrop, but Verne recovered first to get the pin. My problem with this match is it could really have just been one fall. That's not to say the second and third fall weren't good or interesting, but didn't really evolve beyond what they already showed in the initial fall. Overall, they worked much harder then a current match because they weren't endlessly stopping to mug. While it didn't have a second or third act per se, they maintained the activity and intensity for half an hour, so it never dragged in my opinion. ****

5/9/25 NJPW NEVER Openweight Title: Konosuke Takeshita vs. El Phantasmo 17:48
ML: Basically what you would expect from Takeshita vs. Ospreay. These two have good chemistry, and ELP really put his body on the line. Takeshita is always good, but this felt like a rather generic performance from him. It was more of the AEW action style Takeshita than the drawn out NJPW style standing around staring at each other exchanging version though, so that plus, even if it wasn't an A AEW style effort. The early portion was very up and down. Phantasmo was giving it all from the outset, and he was busting out one flying move after another, while Takeshita started slow, interrupting with rest holds. The match obviously got a lot better as Takeshita joined the proceedings and started using his power moves instead. It became more and more of a spotfest as it progressed. They did a nice job of teasing putting each other through a table on the outside, then left it for a while. After Rocky Romero broke up the pin on ELP's thunder kiss '86, Phantasmo got revenge by powerbombing him through. Ultimately, this was fun, well executed action, but there wasn't really a lot going on here, just rolling out a bunch of spots. ***1/4

5/9/25 NJPW IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 17:28
ML: A much more lively match than we got in Japan, largely due to a far more spry version of Goto showing up. Goto was wrestling with a lot more confidence now that he was the champion. ZSJ tried to attack his arm again, but didn't really gain much traction this time. This match had good action, but didn't really tell a story, and the American crowd wasn't invested like they were in Japan, just doing their usual silly indy chants that are more about them than the match. It was an energetic back and forth sprint where they largely played even. The match was reasonably exciting, I just wish Goto wouldn't be so careful with his opponent that it sometimes seems like he's trying not to break an egg, usually when he's using his "elbow". Eventually, Sabre trapped Goto's arms out of a backslide, but Goto got the ropes when ZSJ adjusted to an armbar. This match escalated well, and the outcome felt much more in doubt. The double pin was a cheesy finish though. ZSJ decided to choke out the ref afterwards, which about summed up my disgust as well. As a standalone match, the action was a lot better than Goto's title win, but it definitely didn't have any of the emotion of that match, obviously. ***1/4

4/18/25 WrestleCore: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Artemis Spencer 11:48
ML: The announcers described Spencer as a younger talent looking to make a name for himself when he's actually 39 years old with 22 years experience, whereas Zack is 38 years old with 21 years experience. While Spencer unfortunately isn't that well known, it's because he largely wrestles in British Columbia and Washington, not because he isn't quite good. He can do a junior heavyweight style, or the striking and submission style he did here again Sabre. Spencer is an impactful striker. He still stands and trades to an extent, but he lands something that looks a lot more damaging than the usual phony forearms which is designed to move or drop his opponent with one shot. Spencer was more competitive in the striking then in the grappling. Zack has really upped his striking game in the last few years though, and there were some genuinely good leg kicks in this match. This was closer to shoot style than what ZSJ did at Bloodsport. It was on the short side, but since they limited what they were doing, that was somewhat more reasonable. Spencer isn't a big name, so he didn't really push Sabre. Ultimately, their skill level is a lot higher than their effort here, but this was just a mid-card match in an undersized ring and Arena before a crowd of 120. They did enough, but they are definitely capable of better. ***

3/28/21 STARDOM High Speed Title: Natsupoi vs. Starlight Kid 12:40
ML: There's some real potential here, but ultimately half the match is excellent, while half the match is pedestrian. When they are delivering a high speed match, it's top notch, but when they are trying to figure out what else to do, it's ordinary and uneven. They start with some great super fast counter sequences, but fail to really build upon them. The speed and intensity mask how choreographed these lucha sequences are for the most part because it feels like they have to be reacting in order to keep up, even though this stuff is clearly practiced. The issue here is what they're doing in between the sequences because they're kind of just standing around doing nothing in particular until it's time to go again. The strikes and submissions aren't really incorporated into their lucha libre, so one minute it's warp speed, the next they just kind of wait for the opponent to hit them. The athleticism and agility are tremendous, but while Natsupoi can pull off one of her cartwheel counters out of something slower, most of the normal paced stuff isn't spectacular enough to work with the rest of what they are doing, and just feels like filler. This match isn't built around big spots per se, but rather extreme speed making good spots chained together exceed the sum of the parts. The body of the match kind of meanders, then it picks up considerably down the stretch with the speed and urgency returning in a big way. The high pace also makes the flash pins seem a lot more reasonable. In the end, this isn't a long match, but it's still twice as long as it needs to be. Starlight would correct this problem later on by figuring out to incorporate her submissions into the match, and be able to do them in and out of the fast paced sequences so things can slow down naturally without the experience being so jarring. Still, the strong portions are impressive enough to recommend this. ***1/2

8/8/21 STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Block B: Natsupoi [3] vs. Starlight Kid [3] 9:43
ML: This was more of a traditional junior heavyweight style match. They did one great sequence to start, but that was basically it for the high speed action. After opening with one of the fastest sequences ever, they just stopped with Starlight standing over Natsupoi stomping her. They did the intense forearm exchange more towards the middle this time, which led to a few big spots and got them moving again quicker than in their previous match. There were some better moves, but done in isolation. The climax obviously wasn't nearly as good since the waring factions led to a double count out. In the end, this was good because they have talent and work well together, but it definitely didn't have as much effort as their main event title match from 3/28/21. ***

8/29/21 STARDOM High Speed Title: Natsupoi vs. Starlight Kid 16:59
ML: Kid was reinventing herself here with the new music, ring attire, and technical arrogant heel style. This was a longer, slower building match that unfortunately had the least high speed action of the three. The structuring was a lot better though, and they delivered a much more consistently interesting match, even though the highs weren't nearly as high. Kid now wanted to keep it slow and technical, while Natsupoi still wanted to keep it moving. Natsupoi was a sympathetic babyface, but overall the direction Kid took things wasn't as exciting even though they played off their previous matches a little, and built it up better. Kid working the knee would have made for a better body than we saw in their previous 2 matches, but they basically dropped their most impressive stuff, the sequences, for solid work that was also dropped once things picked up. It's good that this was a different match than their previous two, and there were definitely improvements to the way they put it together, but it also sacrificed a lot. They upped their big moves to compensate for the lack of sequences. The highlight was when Poi German suplexed Kid on the apron then followed with a plancha, which Starlight answered with a quebrada. Starlight picked her offense up from there by dropping the knee work. They did one flashpin sequence near the finish, but that was really it for the high speed stuff. SLK couldn't beat Natsupoi while she was in STARS, but now in Oedo Tai she was able to defeat her. She finally captured the High Speed title on her six try, but there wasn't the kind of celebration there could have been given she's a heel now. ***1/4

5/10/25 MLP: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jonathan Gresham 16:30
ML: Very smooth grappling, with enough activity and other styles mixed in to keep it moving and somewhat unpredictable. This was actually more serious than their underwhelming Bloodsport match because they just did their regular technical pro wrestling match, rather than pretending they were going to do a shoot-style match, but just finding every which way around it. I did like that Jimmy Smith, one of the best MMA announcers, called The Bloodsport match, but Mauro and Callis are a good announcing team, and I prefer them providing the comedy than the cheeky stuff we always see at Bloodsport to keep it from coming off as the type of wrestling they are actually supposed to be delivering. This was more towards the British style technical wrestling that both are good at, with Gresham working in some Lucha Libre because he has the advantage in that style. Zack, in particular, just seemed so much more comfortable and confident in this setting. There was a lot more struggle in the stand-up today, even if it was hand fighting and leverage, whereas in the Bloodsport match they practically just flopped to the mat. Sabre has gotten a lot better at striking in transition to shut his opponent down. Gresham probably did an even better job of tying the opponent up in knots here than Zack did. Both felt much freer to use there speed athleticism and movement in this one, and that was a big positive difference. There were a few impressive sequences here, with it also helping that flash pins were back to being a thing. The last few minutes was one lengthy flash pin sequence that was at a much higher level than the rest of the bout. As good as the finishing sequence was, it wasn't really a fitting ending for grappling match that preceded it though. Ultimately, Sabre gave Gresham a lot since he was winning for the 2nd time in less than a month. Gresham held his own here, and gave one of his best performances in recent times. ***1/4

5/10/25 MLP: Serena Deeb vs. Miyu Yamashita 12:55
ML: Deeb is a strong, Bret Hart influenced technician who is half a step slow of being really impressive. She was one of the best women in AEW a few years ago when they had women's wrestling that was sometimes watchable before the cringe queens took over. That being said, even the level of just the simple early technical wrestling, rolling with the basic arm bars, was so much higher from Deeb due to wrestling an opponent that was actually competent. Yamashita isn't a big woman outside of Japan, but at the same time you appreciate her speed and athleticism a lot more in North America. She was doing Deeb's match, and making it look better than Deeb in the sense that her spins and fancy movements were quick enough to be less obvious and contrived looking. This probably would have come off a lot better had it not been a largely technical match trying to follow ZSJ vs. Gresham. Putting the crappy Dogs vs. Bad Brothers brawl in between would have made a lot more sense. Yamashita got her strikes going now and then, but it took a while, and her offense was never consistent. This had the look of a match where she was going out of her way to make the opponent she was going to beat look good. It was pretty shocking that they wrestled a match where it felt like Deeb controlled 2/3 of where Yamashita also lost. Of course, even though Tony Khan has no plans to do anything useful with Deeb, he never wants his wrestlers losing to any of his supposed partners. Yamashita did a lot more to make Deeb's offense look good then Deeb did to make Yamashita's look good, as Deeb was basically just standing or sitting waiting to be hit. In the end, Yamashita showed she's better at making her opponent's look good than I realized, but that still doesn't seem the best use of her. This definitely started off more impressively than it finished. It was Deeb's technical wrestling vs. Yamashita's eventual kicks, but that ultimately didn't play out because Deeb was winning with death by Deeb rather than a submission, so she just kind of tacked on some big moves at the end. ***

2/11/25 NJPW NEVER Openweight Title: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Oleg Boltin 11:33
ML: Simple but effective, very physical hoss sprint where they started out crashing into each other then Boltin injured his right shoulder crashing into the ring post. Takeshita worked the shoulder, but this was all kind of rushed because they were doing a short match and wanted to get their suplexes in. In general, keeping it short meant they kept the foot on the gas though, so it was a good thing. Also, Boltin is still learning, and doesn't have the best move set, so it was easier for Takeshita to carry him if they didn't have to get too elaborate. The action was somewhat generic, but it worked because we aren't used to this matchup, or Boltin in big singles matches in general. Boltin has some good power moves, but his charging stuff could best be left to John Tenta. He put in a good effort in just his 2nd singles title challenge, but was largely outgunned by the more experienced Takeshita, who gave a good performance as always. ***

2/11/25 NJPW IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hirooki Goto 20:07
ML: Goto was the best and hardest working of his generation of New Japan wrestlers that stayed, a serious, fiery, intense, and credible blue collar wrestler who showed up whether or not he was appreciated. I wanted to see this moment for years, and I'm glad it happened from a sentimental perspective, but wrestlers this age should be retired, not leading companies. Goto was always the guy who could make a good run and even take a league or tournament, but then they'd immediately kill him off having him be the ultimate big belt choker. He was still in the mix with the overrated guys - Tanahashi, Naito, and Nakamura while he was there - until he was buried for 7 years after losing a great G1 Final against Kenny Omega in 2016. With everyone else his age too crippled up to be taken seriously, and the younger names signed by Tony Khan, Gedo was finally forced to push Goto again in 2024. Now after having not having challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Title since losing to Kazuchika Okada almost 9 years ago to the day, winning a rambo of all things was what propelled him to to this challenge against ZSJ where he finally captured the title that eluded him all the years he would have been a truly deserving holder, ironically now that he's also well passed it. Goto was alright here. He gave it all he had. Pretty much everything impressive and explosive came from ZSJ, who had to be opportunistic here since this was more of a standing match with brief submission segments to fit what Goto can do. Goto, of course, played the underdog. Sabre first injured his neck, then his right arm, and was quickly cutting Goto off for the 1st 2/3 of the match. They did a good job of milking Goto as the sentimental favorite. Zack 's offense had noticeably more impact, but Goto's arm was hampering his ability to fire back, and this "injury" sort of justified that, with Goto doing a nice job of grabbing the arm in between moves where he put strain or impact on it without stopping the action. Sabre is excellent when the crowd is against him, finding ways to crush hope out of nowhere, while Goto is an energized baby face comeback, so the match they laid out worked well in broad strokes. Goto wouldn't have his dreams crushed yet again, and willed himself to fire up for a good comeback. The crowd was really into the final stages, trying to will Goto across the finish line. The whole building was on their feet clapping for minutes after Goto finally won the title. This didn't have a bunch of padding, they kept it simple and compact, doing a reasonable length main event for once that didn't stretch Goto too thing. Of course it was nowhere near the match it could have been even 5 years earlier, but nonetheless one of the most emotional New Japan moments of recent times. This isn't a top 100 Goto match by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the one he'll be remembered for. Ultimately, both Zack's run and Goto's run were more thanking them for years of excellent service than anything else, but after the dumbed down dozen years of Mr. Gedobot getting posed for 30 minutes then winning with a dropkick and a clothesline, I'll take whatever highlights for the actual useful wrestlers I can get. ***

12/29/24 STARDOM Wonder Of STARDOM Title: Natsupoi vs. Starlight Kid 23:15
ML: They put everything they had into the big title match for the final show of the year, and delivered one of the best joshi matches of 2024, developing some drama from creating the feeling that both really wanted to win, and were prepared to go the extra mile to do so. Starlight is one of the quickest, smoothest, and most fluid at choreographed athletic sequences that modern matches rely upon, but she also brings multiple styles to her matches, and does it with some struggle and intensity. This had some drama to back up the impressive offense, and felt like a big important match where SLK was fighting to finally capture the biggest title of her life. This was the best performance I've seen from Natsupoi. This was their eighth singles match since 2021, so they are very familiar with one another, and have developed strong chemistry together. They relied on big offense more than high speed sequences, but it still often felt like gymnastics in a good way. Natsupoi fares a lot better when the match is built around movement rather than impact. There was a lot of technical wrestling as well, and she has the speed and flexibility to go in and out of these ground movements also. They showed good body control, did a nice job of rolling into, out of, and with the moves. There was a lot of speed and finesse to what they did, without it seeming any more unrealistic than usual. The focus was Starlight's knee attack and Natsupoi's arm attack, but they were able to incorporate these into the rest of what they were doing without it feeling forced. Starlight's technical wrestling tended to be a dead end as usual, but added layers to what they were doing, and gave them more options in general. The submissions didn't lead to the finish because they want to do something flashier, but they were nice transitional holds that felt less random than what they would have been countering with and utilizing otherwise. Overall, this diversity made the stakes feel a little higher, and this was definitely a match that elevated the value of the belt they were competing for, feeling like they were doing more to win rather than just doing things for the sake of it. SLK eventually pulled out her rarely used avalanche Spanish fly, called The Eternal Foe, but Natsupoi defiantly kicked out at 1 in her last act of defiance before dropping the title. This match was spectacular, but also had some meat to it, some thought to what they were actually doing, rather than just being the usual generic back and forth 50/50 stuff. SLK's push has severely lacked her talent for years, but this was a nice step forward in her slow growth story, now having won everything in STARDOM but the top title. ****

Prestige 4/14/24: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Makabe 22:48
ML: Makabe finally got to wrestle ZSJ, one of his heroes, just before retiring. It was a fun tekkers battle, but I generally like what Makabe is doing a lot more than how he is actually executing it, and this was no exception. Makabe isn't much of an athlete, but he gets as much as he can out of what he has to work with. If he had more explosion to disguise how they were doing things, rather than being slow and mechanical so you can see them posing one another, he probably would have been a special technician. This had all sorts of nifty escapes and counters, though how impressively they were pulled off tended to vary. Makabe is much better trading submissions on the mat than working in and out of arm bars on his feet where the cooperation is glaring. He's good when he's utilizing leverage to work a more grindy technical style because it's more within his physical capabilities, but this isn't the grappling style most people want to see, especially in the 21st century, so that's not what he's doing most of the time. This was also interesting because Makabe brought some different grappling ideas to the match, and it's not just Sabre posing him. The difference in skill and precision was readily apparent though, as ZSJ has the quickness to his movements to sometimes make the style look breathtaking despite its simplicity. Sabre gave a strong performance as usual, but it wasn't anywhere near his wasn't stuff because he was following a lot more. Sabre eventually brought some aggression by stomping on Makabe's hand. Zack began working the arm, and even countered Makabe's European uppercut with an arm bar into a Pele kick on it. ZSJ tried a middle kick when he got up, but Makabe decked him with a punch to the face. There was an interesting spot where Makabe caught a front kick, and did a go behind into a leg crossed suplex. Sabre did a nice job of incorporating his bad attitude and getting some heat without straying from what they were really here to do. I'm glad that Sabre actually won by submission. It's a much more fitting finish for this type of match, and since Makabe was retiring, they didn't have to do a flash pin to justify a rematch. I'm glad we got to see this match even if ultimately it showed Makabe to be someone who does the things Sabre wants to do, but usually not as impressively as the usual Sabre match where he's simply dragging athletes through technical wrestling they don't have much practice in or even understanding of. ***

8/6/25 AEW World Tag Title Eliminator Tournament Semifinal: Bandido & Brody King vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 20:26
ML: The Bucks are great to have as heels now that they've decided to actually do their moves and try again because chances are you are going to get strong offense all around given there aren't many faces in 2025 doing generic bland stuff. They push a much higher pace than almost any other heels in the promotion. Brodido is an odd team to me, they have nothing in common and Brody should be a heel, but I like both individually. I'd gladly have them as champs over the NOAH age WWE rejects that never lose like all Tony Khan's other bad signings that ruin the PPVs. Brodido had an interesting double team dive where Bandito jumped on the middle rope and Brody pulled the rope up to help slingshot him for a tope con giro. Their teamwork backfired a few times to try to show they were still working out the kinks, including their finisher where King monkey flippes Bandido for a 450 splash, which they hit later for the upset win after Bandido did an avalanche blockbuster. This was supposed to be a homage to PWG, but AEW has always been more or less the same thing, just increasingly sillier, phonier, and lazier as everyone has realized that Khan can't book in a manner that elevates anyone without killing off the rest. Speaking of silliness, the Bucks missed their EVP trigger because they were debating what to rename it when they had it set up since they're no longer EVPs. Anyways, this was the athletic no tag rules spotfest you'd expect, with Bucks consistently showing excellent teamwork. This was the Bucks match through and through. Brodido added some good moves, of course, but not enough to distinguish it from the typical good Bucks match. I was surprised they got 20 minutes, and that Bucks didn't win (but they wanted to avoid the usual Bucks vs. FTR match that FTR surely gets sick of losing). The 4 match Dynamite format where they have time to develop the matches (even though they rarely due in any proper traditional manner) is a lot better than when they throw out random jobber matches that don't even help the winner. One of the more interesting spots saw Matt do a triangle DDT onto the apron to Bandido then tried it to King, but unfortunately King couldn't catch him cleanly to deliver the eventual Death Valley bomb on the apron. Bandido is more suited to this style match than Brody is, but Brody provides some actual differentiation. This was on par with Bucks vs. Ospreay & Swerve from All In. ***1/4

8/2/25 UFC: Esteban Ribovics vs. Elves Brener 3R

8/2/25 UFC: Chris Duncan vs. Mateusz Rebecki 3R

7/11/25 ROH World Title: Bandido vs. Konosuke Takeshita 29:25
ML: They put a lot of effort into doing a big main event that would be memorable, and it was always worth watching. They had a ton of time at their disposal, and largely just did more. They showed what they can do though, almost piecemeal, without getting any real mileage out of it. They didn't stall or just kill time until the finishing segment like most matches, but at the same time, if this were a league match, I would have assumed it was going to be a 30-minute draw. Filling time is much better than killing time, but beyond them burning through finishers, it never felt like it might be approaching the actual finish until it really was, from a fluke. The early portion was largely just showing a little bit of everything, providing some diversity before they really got into it, but too an extent, they kind of continued this for 2/3 of the match. The technical wrestling at the outset was mechanically slow and deliberate. This was brief, and Takeshita was able to do a couple natural looking lucha libre sequence with Bandito. I would have liked to have seen more of this, but Takeshita obviously isn't a trained luchador, so maybe this was more or less all they had right now. They began telling the story of Takeshita wanting a methodical pace, which made sense given the style and strengths of Bandido. Takeshita dominating a controlling style match wouldn't have been my first choice, but if they saw it through, it might have been better simply because it was cohesive. Takeshita worked the left arm, but this didn't really go anywhere despite Bandido making a one-armed comeback, and being hampered by it from time to time. They were already working high spots in between these points of brief focus, keeping it interesting without going full on spotfest from the get-go. I never really felt like it went full on spotfest actually, but rather that it kept hedging without really committing, and ultimately there were a lot of diversions without a main course. They delved into some big grudge match, late in the rivalry stuff to suggest that it was the big important match it should have been, such as Takeshita ripping Bandido's mask and bloodying him where it was ripped when Bandido's tope was cut off with a chair shot. That would have been great if anything that came before or after it supported the notion, and they were putting the hatred and the passion into it to make it amount to something beyond a neat effect. This was Liger vs. Sano stuff, but more like I watched a Liger video, and it worked for him, so I guess I'll do it too. Just cutting and pasting all this stuff that was once actually well supported doesn't make your stuff great, it makes it thin and unsupported, especially when you just do a generic 50/50 structure, roll a bunch of ideas out and trade moves until the end. Making sure to include most things that people expect from a great match doesn't make for a great match, it just satisfies expectations, surprising no one. I don't think the first half was all that good even. I think it was simply better than we usually get in this sort of match because it wasn't padded with a bunch of stalling, but really they just passed the time by showing different aspects of their game, none of which did much going forward. It wasn't boring, and there was an overarching purpose of making the champion Bandido the underdog by having him injure his arm and head, but they didn't really make you care or deliver anything that had any real weight, purpose, or lasting impact. We got the best of everything they are capable of doing, and they are impressive athletes who can maneuver their body well. Takeshita is a great opponent for pretty much anyone, and Bandido is an exciting wrestler who is an impressive flyer, but isn't limited to just that. He's so good he actually survived the Jericho Vortex, and has gone on to do useful things. They have good chemistry, and most of what they did together was considerably more impressive than what other people are doing. Everything was a dead end, but they build enough cul-de-sacs that they eventually profited. The way Takeshita was wrestling made sense strategically in that slowing things down didn't play into Bandido's speed and athleticism advantages, but there's definitely better things he could have been doing 17 minutes into the match than a chinlock. The match picked up with Bandido's poisonrana 19 minutes in, but even then it was kind of up and down for the next 5 minutes. I don't think the match was boring before that, but I never believed in what they were doing. I mean, Takeshita was supposed to be getting heat, but it just felt like they were checking boxes for the most part to please the match rating crowd. The action lacked conviction and emotion. It didn't feel like a grudge match, or a match where they were leaving everything in the ring in order to win the title. It was well performed from a nuts and bolts standpoint, but it wasn't pulling me in or adding up. There wasn't a lot of development in terms of how they did things, there weren't little details that made the match better. Takeshita almost blowing his chance to win the title by trying to get Bandito counted out was the most obvious thing they tossed in that didn't make much sense, but overall, this didn't seem particularly thought out. It felt like a match that went the extra mile without going the extra mile. They did extra flashy spots, a few new moves, even more near finishes, but there wasn't much attention to detail or thought to how what came before or after fit into the whole. TIt just relied on the aesthetic values of whatever spots they were doing at the moment to carry it through. I guess I liked The Young Bucks vs. Will Ospreay & Swerve Strickland from the next night a little better because while it was a narrower match, they owned that they were just delivering action a lot quicker, and leaned into what they were doing well, rather than spending most of the match teasing us that they were going above and beyond but never following up properly. There was the idea that The Bucks were the better tag team because Ospreay & Swerve are singles wrestlers, and a little Southern tag heat on Ospreay as they isolated him, but they didn't devote most of their time to doing things they really weren't, just the 1st part of the body. Meanwhile, Takeshita & Bandido spent the 1st 25 minutes not really getting Bandido over as the big underdog then the last 5 doing all their best moves they had left. It wasn't a Takeshita massacre where you kept thinking how is Bandido possibly going to win this, as his honor and life fluids were slowly drained, it was still more or less playing even despite Bandido wearing more damage. The tradeoff was Takeshita had more control time, but Bandido did the majority of the cool stuff, so he stood more even though he was theoretically losing. Ian Riccaboni was going crazy for this match, especially doing a great job of putting over the near finishes towards the end. His enthusiam probably earned the match an extra points or two from a lot of people. After Bandido & Takeshita did all their great moves for half an hour, they ended with a small package of all things. The caught Takeshita by surprise finish felt more like a TV finish along the way to this big grudge match they tried to do but not really than the finish of the main event of your biggest show of the year. I would have preferred Bandido winning with the shooting star press they said he never did before (but that was conveniently the finish of the 1/31/90 Liger/Sano match they were already borrowing from), something different for him that wasn't a cheesy fluke. I'm being hard on this match even though I enjoyed it, but in the end, not doing things wrong doesn't mean they're actually getting them right. This match felt pretty devoid of heat and intensity, when those should have been the primary aspects given they went down the route of the blood and the mask ripping, with the fancy stuff eventually backing the grudge match stuff up, and hopefully taking the match to another level. No doubt this was good, but as usual, I'm not seeing why people are over the moon about it. ***1/4

7/12/25 AEW: Swerve Strickland & Will Ospreay vs. Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson 26:16
ML: They threatened to actually tell the obvious story of Ospreay & Swerve being the better individual wrestlers, but the Young Bucks being the better, more experienced tag team. Ospreay and Strickland had some double team tricks up their sleeves, such as Ospreay doing the sky twister press off Swerve's back, and generally tried to out buck the Bucks. After some early excitement, they shifted to the Bucks getting heat on Ospreay. This looked like it was going to follow the Southern tag structure, but Ospreay made the hot tag much quicker, like 15 minutes, and then it became the expected 50/50 spectacle for the duration, including stereo shooting star presses and Styles clashes by Ospreay and Strickland. Ultimately, they did the spotfest the fans expected. The pleasant surprise was that it felt like two actual teams going at it, even though some of the setups were too slow and telegraphed. Everyone did what they do well, and that's provide big action. They did bigger variations of their usual moves such as Strickland doing a Swerve stomp off the top into Ospreay's stormbreaker and Bucks giving Swerve a TK driver on the outside. They stole each other's finishers, such as Nick then using Ospreay's own hidden blade on him. Some of it was a little too cute, but it was generally good fun. Ospreay accidentally caught Swerve with the hidden blade, but at least they didn't go down the whole fake split rabbit hole. Ospreay and Swerve both Hulking up at various times was annoying. Swerve took Nick out with a Swerve stomp off the apron then they double-teamed Matt with their finishers, setting up on opposite sides and charging for a house call and hidden blade combination to finish Matthew. The Bucks were the better half here, but that's too be expected since they are true tag wrestlers. Ospreay & Swerve put effort into working together and wrestling like a unit though, so it didn't feel like two individuals beating the team. Ospreay was a little off for once, so I can believe he's hurting. Swerve is the weak link of the four because he just has his offense, but it's not as impressive as the other 3. Swerve was better here though because this setting got him to lean into what he does well, and he was a lot more active in general. In the end, this was a good but not memorable spotfest where everyone contributed more or less equally to delivering spectacle. ***1/4

11/9/93 LLPW ~Elimination Battle Field~: Yumiko Hotta, Suzuka Minami, Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Numacchi vs. Eagle Sawai, Harley Saito, Noriyo Tateno, Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo 17:39 of 26:39
PA: The first of three ‘real’ matches on the show, and it was worth the wait. Really good fast-paced match that was laid out well, though it did go a little over the top with the booking. There were enough people in the match that the weaker wrestlers involved couldn’t drag it down. The majority of the 8 minutes clipped were before the first elimination (which came at 5:11, but the actual time was 11:27). Yasha and Endo were the first ones out, and Minami and Tateno were out soon after. That left it being Harley & Eagle vs. the entire Zenjo team minus Minami. They went for a few minutes, and Eagle eliminated the last four inside of a minute, which started with Numacchi nailing Hotta with a shovel of all things. It must have been a rib to have Numacchi be the final elimination. ***1/2

11/9/93 LLPW: Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi 14:38
PA: Really heated an intense bout designed to build up Bull vs. Kandori, which it did a great job of. They barely interacted, but when they did, it was it was meaningful and memorable. In between it was mainly Takako vs. Hozumi, who had a good match themselves, no one cared much about it, but they weren’t really supposed to, and they did a good job in their holding role. The rest of the time, they just served as fodder for Bull and Kandori. The match probably doesn’t sound interesting, but it was due to the heat, intensity and the quality of everyones performances. They worked in a nice finish with Kandori repeatedly attempting to submit Takako and being saved by Bull. Bull broke up one attempt by dropping the leg on Kandori’s arm, which got Takako a nice near fall with Hozumi breaking up the pin, but she eventually got caught in a wakigatame and submitted before Bull could get over to break it up. ****

11/9/93 LLPW Hair vs. Hair Death Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama 13:47
PA: Hokuto’s first and only match in LLPW, and it took a hair match to get her in there. I believe the hair stipulation was originally being saved for the Hokuto vs. Kandori rematch, but when Hokuto decided to retire if she lost, they didn’t need it to sell tickets anymore, and there wasn’t much else that could have made Hokuto vs. Kazama II particularly interesting. Within one move you knew where we were going. Hokuto did a backbreaker on her bad knee, so Rumi sold her back huge and Hokuto sold her knee like she blew it out again. Comparing to their first match, that one had more action, but this was better in the sense that it was a bit more dramatic, and had Hokuto stepping more into the heel role (although half the fans were Zenjo fans anyway, so she didn’t get any heat for it), showing more disdain and arrogance than we’d seen from her in her recent matches. Her arrogance cost her, and Kazama came back attacking the bad leg. Hokuto’s selling was so good, and Kazama was good enough in her role that they actually made her credible by the end of the match, and perhaps even more than that until a missing diving senton put a stop to her run. It was mainly one way traffic from there, with Hokuto eventually ending it with a sleeper. The haircut angle wasn’t much. Hokuto didn’t even care enough to cut any of Kazama’s hair, or even stick around for the haircut itself. ***1/4

11/12/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93 League Match: Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Kyoko Inoue 17:27 of 19:40
PA: Takako’s leg and shoulder were bandaged up, with the leg being the focus of the day. Interestingly enough, Kyoko went for the bad leg while Yamada was more interested in the good leg, just do she’d have no to leg to stand on. She hit an Aurora Special out of nowhere and scampered off to tag Hotta, who came in kicking the hell out of Kyoko. As always, Takako wouldn’t be outdone and Hotta was happy to let her get some revenge once she’d weakened Kyoko enough for Takako to have her fun. Takako went after Kyoko’s leg, and it was shaping up to be a similar match for the 9/5 tag, with Kyoko playing the Hokuto role. Kyoko’s selling during this phase was excellence, but to compare them, there was no one capable of creating the drama that Hokuto could. It ended up with an intense crowd brawl, which saw Hotta and Yamada throwing kicks in the crowd while Takako tried to finish Kyoko with kneebars in the ring. The finishing run was great when Kyoko and Yamada were pushing Hotta, with Takako making really well timed cut offs and saves. It came down to their teamwork. Kyoko and Yamada had good teamwork, but Takako was always there when she was needed, and Hotta would have been put away without her. At the end, both Hotta and Yamada had a shot, but Takako was the difference, prevented a doomsday brain kick and taking out Yamada, allowing Hotta to hit the Pyramid Driver to finish Kyoko. ****

11/12/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93 League Match: Manami Toyota & Akira Hokuto vs. Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa 22:59
PA: As good as the previous match was, this one just blew it away, and was easily the best of the league matches. Toyota found herself on the receiving end of brutal submissions from Aja, with Sakie following on nicely. Toyota was on point here too. She sold, and when the time came for the comeback, she took the opportunity to springboard and get out as quick as she could. Hokuto worked over Sakie, maybe not as brutally as Aja had worked over Toyota, but it wasn’t far behind, and Toyota came in for some revenge, with sheer delight when Hokuto invited her to come in. Her reaction to camel clutch punting Sakie was a classic, and Hokuto got one in too. It wouldn’t be so fun for Hokuto later when Sakie and Aja took their revenge for that. Sakie was best in the first half. She stretched Toyota pretty well and took a good beating, but later in the match, her segments weren’t so good, as she’d just grab an uninspired hold. Aja was always there to pick the match back up again though, and this did work out as part of the story. When Sakie was ruthless, she was competitive, and looked like she belonged. When she wasn’t, she could only hold the advantage for so long. Toyota hit the Carol killing rolling cradle 17 minutes in, and did it for about 60 seconds (maybe if she did it for 90 seconds she could have won with it), and that set up a great final portion. Aja tried to save Sakie from a moonsault, but Hokuto intervened and Toyota hit it. Sakie got the knees up on a diving body press though. Soon after, Hokuto and Toyota both hit their big dives on the outside - the somersault plancha and the quebrada - before almost finishing off Aja in the ring with a double missile dropkick. Aja came back with a backdrop suplex and took over on Hokuto. Toyota dove in trying to save her partner, but Aja caught her, and the momentum from the dive caused Aja to fall back onto Hokuto. Hokuto did recover to slip off a backdrop suplex, hitting her own, forcing Aja to tag out. Sakie tagged in, and got DQ bombed for a near fall. Toyota intervened with a headbutt, inadvertently striking Hokuto. Sakie executed uranages on both opponents, securing a near fall on Hokuto, which Toyota interrupted. Aja came into finish things off, delivering a pair urakens to Hokuto, but Toyota broke up the pin. Sakie dispatched Toyota once more, allowing Aja to set up for a mountain bomb. However, Hokuto countered with a sunset flip, pinning the champion for the victory. Hokuto’s reaction was priceless, she couldn’t believe it until Toyota ran over for the celebration. ****1/2

12/21/24 GLORY: Jan Kaffa vs. Yutaro Asahi R3 2:00
ML: This was an excellent fight that was somewhat marred by a bad ref call stealing the final minute from us, and arguably the match from Kaffa, though he was clearly losing. The right fighter still won, based on what we'd seen so far, but one of the things that made this fight so good was that there were a lot of surprises. Kaffa was far less consistent than Asahi, but he'd proven he could drop Asahi out of nowhere, and it was such a high quality match I didn't want to see it end. The first round was by far the worst, but it was fine, and the other two really made up for it. Kaffa started patiently, which wasn't working because Asahi was doing a good job of using his jab to maintain distance. Asahi would get the 1st shot in, and either follow it up or be ready to counter when Kaffa pushed forward. Kaffa's nose was bloodied before he forced himself to be more proactive. Both opened up right from the start of round two, but while Asahi was still showing more speed and dynamism, the less technical fight gave Kaffa more opportunities to catch Asahi off guard. Kaffa backed Asahi into the ropes with a right middle kick that was blocked, then Asahi sidestepped a left to the body, but got leveled with an awesome right spinning backfist as Asahi was looking to answer with the check hook. Kaffa couldn't really manufacture these kind of big moments in a repeatable manner, but he could react well, and it was never safe to exchange with him. Asahi wobbled Kaffa with a left high kick even though it was blocked, but Kaffa avoided a spinning backfist and landed another of his own. This was an excellent round. Asahi would have won the round if not for the knockdown, but he found himself down going into the final round despite being the consistently better fighter throughout. Asahi was pressing hard to start the third, and Kaffa was matching his urgency. Asahi wobbled Kaffa with a right straight then dropped him with a beautiful jumping knee. Asahi tried a switch high kick, but Kaffa blocked it and landed a spinning backfist on the break. The ref then took a left hook from Kaffa trying to separate them. This was getting wilder and wilder. Asahi landed a jumping knee, but basically just jumped through Kaffa. Kaffa see the knee coming and back up at all, so Asahi wound up grabbing Kaffa mid-air, and landed on top of him kind of like a Thesz press. This was called the knockdown, but it was a terrible call because there was no way for Kaffa to avoid going down given his opponent fell on top of him. The weight of Asahi jumping on Kaffa caused Kaffa to fall awkwardly, and I was wondering if he might have hurt a knee, but this was irrelevant because as a tournament alternate match, the ref ruling it a knockdown still meant the fight was over due to 2 knockdowns in the same round. Excellent match.

12/21/24 GLORY/RISE Featherweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal: Berjan Peposhi vs. Lee Sung-hyun 3R
ML: This was good, but not as consistently entertaining as the typical Peposhi match. Peposhi has become a lot better at dictating the fight in the past year, but this felt like a step backwards. He still had high output, but he was too willing to fight Lee's fight, which saw him consistenly giving ground. Lee was more measured, aiming for the one big shot. Lee was forcing Peposhi to back up, trying to create openings for his boxing, but he was too hesitant because he wanted to counter rather than to lead. Peposhi fought well with his back against the ropes, and showed good footwork when he needed to. Peposhi was largely scoring without taking too much damage even though he was the one who was dictating position, but Lee wasn't trying to win by outlanding Peposhi. I initially thought Peposhi cut Lee under the right eyebrow with his short left hook counter, but from the replay, it looked like an accidental clash of heads before he landed it. Lee was looking for the left hook counter to the right straight, and finally he dropped Peposhi with it late in the second round. Peposhi got up swinging, trying to get it back before the round ended. He missed a big left hook, but then dropped Lee with another one. The action was a lot more frantic in the third round, with Peposhi likely ahead, but both fighters assuming they needed to win the round if they wanted the decision. Lee was done playing the waiting game though. I thought Peposhi got a real mouthpiece after the Chikh Mousa disaster, but Lee was able to knock it out with an ordinary right straight. With 11 seconds left, just as they finished showing the statistics where Peposhi had outlanded Lee 132 to 47, Lee scored a flash knockdown with a step knee. Peposhi was disgusted because 1 knee just briefly touched the canvas, and he had no time to get it back, as the bell literally rang just as the referee restarted to fight. I thought Peposhi won the 1st 2 rounds, with the second round knockdown being a wash, so a 10-8 3rd for Lee would make it a draw and force an extra round. Instead, two judges scored the 2nd round even, so Lee won a majority decision 29-28, 28-28, 29-28. Good match.

7/24/11 STARDOM, High Speed Title: Leon vs. Natsuki*Taiyo 21:41
ML: Taiyo had basically been wrestling painfully green rookies since STARDOM began in April after being one of the best, if not the top female worker the past 2 years, and was stoked to finally have a real opponent again in Leon for STARDOM's historic first ever Korakuen Hall show. Taiyo really went all out today, they both did. Their previous High Speed Title Match on the Passion Red 11/27/10 5Passion show was about showing some of every style they could do. This one was a lot more focused on just being the fastest and most spectacular junior heavyweight style match they could deliver. While I certainly appreciated the diversity of their Passion Red match, it felt all over the place while this match felt a lot more in unison. They still worked other aspects in, but they did a better job of incorporating them briefly when it made sense, so the tone felt a lot more even, and this was more about being opportunistic than doing various interludes. They essentially kept the pedal to the medal concept throughout, taking a break here or there when someone found themselves trapped in a submission, but not in an obvious manner where the submission was obvious throwaway to catch their breath. The whole match felt more organic, more as though they were creating openings for themselves and logically taking what was available to them with their counters, and thus less like they were doing an exhibition where they put everything they were capable of doing on display simply because they could. The underlying thread here was always that they had to be faster and more on their toes than the opponent. This had a lot of urgency and aggression, but it wasn't purely about getting off 1st, it was also about reacting to what the opponent was doing, winning a sequence at a time by outmanuevering the opposition. Taiyo's athleticism is off the charts. She gets top marks not only for pure speed, but also for flexibility and body control. She can bend and contort herself to make really fluid gymnastic counters and take really graceful bumps that also seem safer because she's disappating the impact rolling through them rather than thudding on her back all the time. Leon can't do nearly as much with her body as Taiyo, but she is smart about hiding that while still being able to hang in this style that is impressing so much just for how fast they can go and how well they can roll with each other. Leon understands how to feed, how to be the base and the foil incredibly well, but she can do all this while still being able to offer enough in the offense and movement departments that you don't feel she has to depart from the high speed style in order to actually compete. They had a lot more focus on gymnastics, and more sprinting the ropes than the previous match. This is obviously cooperative stuff, but because they go all out from start to finish, running all the time rather than trotting, extending the sequences and continuing to bring the action rather than stopping to flail like a fish out of water or embarrassingly beg for the crowds approval rather than continuing to earn it, there isn't time for the audience to contemplate the cooperation. Of course there are plenty of times where they aren't going 100 miles per hour because they do actually lock up and actively grapple, but they are still fighting with one another, still engaged with the opponent and moving to attack or defend. They still wrestle with conviction, and make it look like they are trying to hurt one another. It feels competitive rather than friendly. The gymnastics don't just feel like an exhibition. The gymnastics are certainly prevalant, and they are much better than the usual escape or avoid stuff that was the backbone of the early portion of so many New Japan junior style matches. They stick with the acrobatics throughout, and there' a sense here that they are avoiding the usual patterns and linear rope running in order to confuse their opponent into making a mistake that will allow them to successfully execute a move. Taiyo could lose a 100 yard dash to someone with much longer legs, but she might have the most pure foot speed of anyone who has competed, and while so many wrestlers today are content to halfheartedly trot around, she always sprints like she needs to beat her opponent to the position. A few things went wrong in this match because they were trying to be faster than everyone else or because that's what happens when you do so much that requires a high level of skill and athleticism. They just kept charging forward though, and no one really cared. There's a lot of drive and willpower here that just makes you really want to watch because you can see they are pouring their heart into this rather than simply giving any old lackadaisical performance. The speed, slickness, and fluidity of their movements was what separated this rather than the moves themselves. I love Taiyo's energy and enthusiasm in general. She was kind of goofy early in her career with the Natsuki Head gimmick where she insisted one making most of her offense some sort of headbutt, but she was one of wrestling's greatest waterbugs in general. I don't think Leon's crabs really worked here, but arguably needed a few more excuses to slow down because I think they were legitimately tired down the stretch given this was both longer and faster than they'd otherwise wrestle in singles. They didn't try to save the best for last really. They started at a really high level, and kept it consistently exciting throughout 22 minutes that were all excellent, mostly explosive stuff. Taiyo regained the title with her Momo*latch, also the finisher of her idol Momoe Nakanishi. With this match, Taiyo probably succeeded in surpassing anything Nakanishi ever did in singles. Taiyo vs. Leon was one of those great pairings that we didn't get to see enough of. This is the only time Leon ever wrestled in STARDOM, beginning the trend of an outsider, Arisa Nakajima and DASH Chisako being other examples, having an all-time great STARDOM match then never being invited back. That's probably why this match has flown under the radar, as Taiyo retired before the STARDOM WORLD days, while Leon continued to star for JWP/Pure-J, a promotion that can't get their footage out there. ****1/2